No One Escapes Cidhna Mine
No One Escapes Cidhna Mine is a quest in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. After completing The Forsworn Conspiracy, the Markarth city guards frame the Dragonborn, starting this quest. You are locked in Cidhna mine and you can choose to become a forsworn or not, if you do then you recieve the "Armor of the old gods." Quick Walkthrough #Ask a prisoner about Madanach Get past Borkul the Beast #Talk to Madanach #Speak to Braig and listen to his story #Return to Madanach #Options ##Kill Madanach and leave Cidhna Mine through the secret escape path mentioned in Madanach's note. ##Kill Grisvar the Unlucky and follow Madanach Walkthrough After entering the mine and talking to Uraccen the Dragonborn learns that Madanach is located in a private cell which is being guarded by Borkul the Beast. After speaking to Borkul he tells the Dragonborn that he will only allow passage in exchange for a shiv as a toll. A prisoner named Grisvar the Unlucky will have a shiv, but he will only trade it for Skooma, which can be pickpocketed from Duach or Braig. Alternatively, Borkul can be challenged to a brawl, persuaded or given the Skooma directly. After gaining entrance to Madanach's cell, the player has four options: * Help Madanach. Madanach will try and convince the Dragonborn that he and his Forsworn are justified in their actions and asks sends the player to seek out the prisoner Braig and hear his story. After listening to Braig, return to Madanach and he will offer freedom, but he requires proof of loyalty. He requests the assassination of Grisvar the Unlucky, who has outlived his usefulness to the Forsworn Rebellion. After killing Grisvar, return to Madanach. Upon hearing news of the Grisvar's death, Madanach gathers the remaining prisoners and leads them to an escape tunnel that runs through the Markarth Ruins. At the end of the tunnel, the Dragonborn's belongings are returned to them by Kaie and Madanach rewards the player with Armor of the Old Gods. Once outside, there is a confrontation between Thonar and Madanach. The Forsworn and Madanach charge the city, killing Thonar and all guards in sight. After they leave the city, they will continue running to Druadach Redoubt which will have several friendly Forsworn inside. * Kill Madanach in his cell, read the note on his body and use his escape route. Upon exiting, Thonar Silver-Blood greets the Dragonborn and rewards them with with Silver-Blood Family Ring. The ring is enchanted so that weapons and armor can be improved 15% better. * Kill everyone. After attacking a prisoner or Borkul, everyone becomes hostile. Thonar Silver-Blood will reward the Dragonborn with the Silver-Blood Family Ring. Essentially the same outcome as the second option. * Initially side with Madanach, then after being given the Armor of the Old Gods, kill him and the other Forsworn. Upon leaving, Thonar Silver-Blood will give the Dragonborn the Silver-Blood Family Ring. Notable Loot There are two main paths for escape, and each carries a reward: *Helping Madanach by killing Grisvar rewards the Armor of the Old Gods, a full set of enchanted Forsworn Armor (Light Armor). **Madanach's new headquarters at the Druadach Redoubt cave contains more valuable loot, free for the taking, and a map of all Forsworn encampments. *Killing Madanach and escaping alone rewards the Silver-Blood Family Ring, providing +15% Smithing. **If the player kills Madanach after receiving the Armor of the Old Gods and their belongings, but before leaving the Markarth Ruins, Thonar will greet him outside with the Silver-Blood Family Ring and the quest will be completed. Notes *Betraying the Forsworn provokes Vorstag to attack the player relentlessly,even if they are married to him. *If the killing of Madanach is timed right, the Dragonborn will not attract the attention of his warriors. **Wait until he is standing at the exit door and hit him with a ranged attack. He will appear to go through the door but come back inside alone. Finish him and exit to Markarth where the battle has already started. Madanach's followers will attack on sight; however, the ring is still rewarded and the quest completed, although Thonor most likely will be dead along with a few soldiers. **Pickpocket Madanach, he will attack you but his guards won't. This is an easy way to get away without having to fight several men with only a pick-axe. *The player's inventory will be returned upon completion of the quest. *In the Markarth Ruins, there are several Frostbite Spiders and two Dwemer Spheres which can be a challenge for lower-level players. *Killing Madanach and his men after he rewards the armor and then speaking to Thonar allows you to get both the armor and the ring. *If the player follows the prisoners outside Markarth, they might be attacked by Forsworn on their way to Druadach Redoubt, even though they are Forsworn themselves. Also, all other Forsworn outside of Druadach will still attack the player even if they did help Madanach escape. *If you kill Madanach after he rewards the armor, the Forsworn at Druadach Redoubt are still friendly and you can enter the cave and loot anything without being attacked. *After gaining access to Madanach's cell, those who have completed The Silver Hand can morph into werewolf form and slaughter all of the prisoners, including Madanach. *Breaking out of the mine with the other prisoners doesn't count as a "Jail Escape" on the "General Stats" page. *After exiting the mines with Madanach and the rest of the Forsworn, if the player enters a building before the Forsworn have escaped Markarth you will find all of them, including Madanach, will be dead upon your reentrance of Markarth. Bugs *PC: It is possible to recieve both rewards with the completion of this quest. This is similar to the Notes entry, however appears to be a bug as it is the 'No Friends' option.When asked to kill Grisvar the Unlucky, proceed to go talk to him. However do not use the dialogue option "Madanach says hello", but instead ask him for a shiv and proceed to get it for him. (This step may not be neseccary, unknown). Then return to Madanach and pickpocket his Note - read it. You will now have two quest icons - Kill and Escape. You now must attack Madanach, but do not kill him. You will need a high sneak (Invisibility is useful here) so as to make Madanach search for you. He may eventually open the escape tunnel whilst searching for you. Slip through the tunnel and then continue along the path to the exit/escape. At the exit Madanach (behind you) and Kaie (ahead) will appear, and both will be hostile to you. Run past them to the 'trigger loction' near the door. They will stop hostilities and engage in conversation, returning your gear. Kaie leaves and Madanach resumes hostilities. Kill him. Store the note you pickpocketed and retrieve it again. You must then read it. Leave the ruins. Now the Silver-bloods will talk to you and thankyou for your efforts killing Madanach. However be sure to fast track the dialogue (clicking) as you are under attack during the conversation. Everyone is now your enemy. *Xbox 360: after breaking out of jail, do not kill any guards. This will give you a 1040 bounty. If any guards see you, they will say they are taking you to jail without the option to persuade or bribe. The dialogue will repeat but you'll never go to jail. If you hit B to exit, they will attack. *Xbox 360, PS3, and PC: It is possible that after completing this quest, guards will still try to arrest you for murder and conspiracy against Markarth. If this happens, hit the B button, and he will stop talking to you. (Confirmed) *Xbox 360, (PS3) and PC: It is possible that after completion of this quest, guards will repeatedly attempt to arrest you for murder and conspiracy against Markarth; the option to go to jail results in the conversation starting over, and pressing "B" (O) can result in the guards becoming hostile towards the PC depending on when "B" (O) is pressed during the conversation. It is still possible to act within the city, as you can exit the conversation after submitting to arrest, or after saying you were framed, without the guards becoming hostile. however, guards will still initiate the conversation after a short period of time. Exiting the conversation, after choosing the "i was framed" option, will afford you ample time to get away from the persecuting guard (provided there are not any more guards attempting to persecute you), as he continues to stand and deliver his rather long rebuttal to your alibi, even after you have exited the conversation with "B" (O). Another consideration for freedom of movement within the city, as well as interacting, uninterrupted, with other non-guard NPC's, is to use the "i was framed" dialogue to lure guards into secluded places (like the abandoned house or a dark corner) and kill them. To do this, exit the conversation after saying you were framed using the "B" (O) button; while the guard is delivering his lengthy response, enter stealth mode and move far enough away that he can still see you, but has to move closer to talk to you again. when he begins to follow you, lead him as far as you can in the direction of your chosen location of seclusion. repeat this if necessary, as sometimes the guard may catch up to you before you get to your secluded place. Also, if the guard sees you enter a door, he will follow you in, even your own home, Vlindrel Hall, if you have access to it. Killing the guards off in these secluded places, while in sneak mode (preferably with a stealth kill), will not raise your bounty, nor will it affect your relationship with the Jarl, or other important people of Markarth (except for Legate Emmanuel Admand, the captain of the guard, who cannot be killed, but is easy to avoid, as he stays in the same room of the keep at all times). If a guard (or more than one guard) does witness the killing of a fellow guard, your bounty will go up, but if you can kill the rest of the alerted guards without going through a door that has a loading screen, you will eventually eliminate the last witness which will remove all the bounty you just gained. Eventually, you will kill off all the guards and be free to roam wherever you like, without getting harassed. So far, the guards have only re-spawned once (when the PC became thane of Markarth) in the first week of in-game time. Even though neither the guards, nor the Jarl, will directly attempt to collect any bounty you have gained, they will send bounty collectors into the reach to collect your bounty from you or kill you. Paying the bounty to a bounty collector in the reach will not absolve you of your "crimes" in Markarth, even though the bounty collector says it will. Interaction with NPC's will turn guards hostile if you are within their eyesight. (Confirmed) *PC: One way to fix the above problem is to enter the console outside of Markarth and enter TCAI (Toggle Combat Artificial Intelligence). After doing this, the AI will not attack you. Enter Markarth and head to the Shrine of Talos where the three guards confronted you, and then turn TCAI off by entering it in the console again. Here, the guards will speak to you. Select come quietly, and then when the guards start the next conversation with you there should be three dots above the normal response. Select this, the guards will continue their conversation, and afterwards the guards will return to normal and no longer try to arrest you. *PC: Another way to fix it is to enter the city, locate any of the town guards and before they run to you to open the dialogue, open console, select the guard with your mouse so that his id ( you can also get guard id by opening console and writing " help Markarth 4" this will show list of all object in the city, use page up and page down buttons to scroll id`s) is showed and write in the console "paycrimegold". This should teleport you to a random spot around Markarth, reseting guards to thier normal duty and current events. *To fix on XBox and PS3, make sure your level is high enough and enter Markarth. Upon entering the city, do not have any guards spot you, and enter the Shrine of Talos. The three guards from the previous quest "The Forsworn Conspiracy," will still be there, and the middle guard will engage in the same conversation as at the end of that quest. The other two guards will attack you, and because you are in conversation, there is no way to fight back, so be prepared. Answer the guard with "You're corrupt, Thonar is paying you," and then again with "Fine, I'll come quietly." The guard will then do nothing, so heal yourself. After a few seconds, the same guard will attempt to arrest you, and give you the option to pay off your bounty. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4cgvCPRunU *PS3 and Xbox 360: In regards to the above bug, here is a fix for the same bug but on the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game: **Go to the city of Markarth. **Immediately begin sneaking. **Sneak to the 'Shrine of Talos' in Markarth. **When inside the Shrine, talk to the guard, standing inside the Shrine. **During your conversation with the guard, choose the option that sounds similar to "Madanach is behind the killings!" and then choose the option similar to "Take me to jail." The guard(s) should begin trying to attack you. **Run from the guards to the outside of the Shrine of Talos, but stay in Markarth. You can stop sneaking. **Kill the guard(s) that tried attacking you in the Shrine of Talos. **Once those guards are dead, wait 48 hours (choose to wait 24 hours twice in a row). **Let a guard confront you. **The guard will give the player the option of going to jail **Choose the jail option **If there is a loading screen, the character will be let free **You can't take the exit out of the mine that you used the first time you were here because the door is locked to Madanach's cell. Using a pickaxe to mine will prompt the game to ask, "Are you sure you want to serve your time?" **Choose "Yes, kind sir!" **You don't have to serve a life sentence in Cidhna Mine, and after the loading screen disappears, you will have been transported outside of Cidhna Mine. *Xbox 360: After completing this quest, a glitch occurs that will prevent the PC from being able to Fast Travel or Wait, stating that you are still being pursued by guards. Fix: Commit a crime and allow yourself to be caught. Paying the fine or going to jail will fix the bug. *It seems that if you have killed the prisoners prior to this quest you cannot complete the quest *PC: It is possible that Madanach will not have the key in his inventory when you pickpocket him. *Glitches are less likely to occur if you go to jail peacefully. (Confirmed) *If you pickpocket the note from Madanach, it will not let you read it properly, therefore not allowing you to complete the quest. Thonar will attack you upon exiting the ruins. Edit: Thonar be calmed using the voice of the emperor power which allows you to complete the quest and receive all your gear back. Calm spell may work as well but has not been confirmed. *PC: If you start the quest in the cell, but both doors are locked with no way to open them. Open the console and enter "''setstage ms02 0".' *Xbox 360: If you had the skeleton key from the thieves guild missions in your inventory when you went to jail you wont get it back with the rest of your belongings. *Xbox 360: ANY quest items in your inventory (which you cannot remove otherwise) will be permanently removed following the break out from the mine, this includes dragon claws, amulets, gems, anything. (Confirmed) Edit: A Patch may have fixed this. **About the note above, it is possible to receive all quest items from Madanach when he states he gives you all the items guards took from you. *PC, Xbox 360, and PS3: You may not receive all quest items from Kaie that you had before this quest began. However, (not sure if its a bug) you get them when the forsworn start fighting the guards outside the ruins. If you kill the forsworn in the ruins, then Thonar gives them to you after the conversation. *After leaving the mine, Madanach and his men, as well as Thonar and his guard, will just stand outside and do nothing. The event where they're supposed to fight just doesn't happen. A possible fix for this is to kill the Guard standing with Thonar; this seems to initiate the fight scene between then them. Howver, there seems to be no other fix, even reloading to previous saves doesn't work, therefore setstage must be used to complete the quest, unfortunately this means you miss the fight scene. This is a very rare yet very game breaking bug. *After completing the quest, first helping Madanach to get the armor and then later turning on him by helping the guards kill him so you could also get the ring from Thonar Uraccens dead body is laying along the path just before the entrance to Druadach Redoubt. It is unknown how he made it all the way there and then died. *PS3: Sometimes, when the quest is completed by killing the prisoners, there will be 3 guards standing outside with no one to give the Silver-Blood Family Ring. (Update: to fix this the player must reload to a point before he talk to Talnor in the Treasury house and make sure that Talnor is not attacked by the player during the battle). *PC, Xbox 360, and PS3: It is possible upon arriving in Cidhna Mine, Urzoga gra-Shugurz (the guard) has no dialogue options but instead fights you until death. *Xbox 360: When starting the quest, you may notice an item you had equipped in your inventory is still in your favorites, and is there and can be used throughout the quest. However, when you get your gear back the item, while still appearing in your favorites, will not appear in your inventory. Even under the favorites section in your inventory. The only way to equip or remove this item is by pressing up on the d-pad. No fix. *Xbox 360: all pick-up sounds for items will not sound. Category:Skyrim: Quests